The Corporate Takeover of Your A/C: Private Equity vs. The Family Legacy

If you’ve lived in the Miami Valley for a while, you’ve noticed the change. The name on the side of the HVAC truck that serviced your neighbor's house for twenty years has suddenly changed. Or, perhaps the name stayed the same, but the colors are brighter, the prices have doubled, and the person at your door feels more like a car salesman than a mechanic.

There is a massive, quiet shift happening in the HVAC industry: Private Equity (PE) has arrived in Dayton.

The American Dream: The Exit

Before we look at the downsides, we have to acknowledge the positive side of this trend. For decades, HVAC was a true "lifestyle" business. A technician started with one truck, built a reputation in Dayton, hired a few neighbors, and grew a fleet through years of sweat equity.

When those owners reach retirement age, they deserve an "exit." Seeing a local, family-owned business grow to a point where a multi-million dollar investment firm wants to buy it is the American Dream in action. I have nothing but respect for the founders who put in 30 years of hard work and are finally able to cash out. They earned that win.

But as a homeowner, you need to understand what happens to the service quality the day after that owner signs the paperwork.

The Math of Wealth Extraction

Private Equity firms aren't "HVAC people." They are investment people. With my background in finance, I look at the same spreadsheets they do, but I see a different story.

When a firm buys a local company for a "high multiple," they are often taking on significant debt to make the purchase. To pay off that debt and return a profit to their shareholders, they have to "optimize" the business. In the world of finance, this is often a game of Wealth Extraction. Since they can’t easily lower their fixed costs, they have to increase their revenue per customer. This usually manifests in three ways:

1. The Service-to-Sales Pipeline: Technicians are often turned into "Sales Associates." They are given daily quotas for how many new systems they should recommend.
2. Aggressive Pricing: Large firms have massive corporate overhead and marketing budgets. Those costs are passed directly to you in the form of $1,000+ repair quotes for simple fixes.
3. The "Efficiency" Squeeze: They want the truck in and out as fast as possible. This leads to skipped calculations and "cookie-cutter" installs that don't account for the unique needs of your home.

Building for the Next Generation

While the PE model is focused on an "Exit Strategy," I am focused on a Legacy Strategy. I have two boys, and my goal is to build a company that they would be proud to have passed to them one day. That means I can't take shortcuts. I can't treat my neighbors like a "revenue target" to satisfy a board of directors in another state. If I want this business to be here for my sons, I have to build it on a foundation of trust and technical excellence that lasts for decades, not just until the next fiscal quarter.

The JBH Choice: Engineering over Equity

Because JBH Heating & Air is intentionally independent, I don't have a sales manager breathing down my neck to hit a quota.

• If your system can be repaired, we repair it.
• If you need a new system, we use my finance and engineering background to run the Manual J calculations to ensure it's sized perfectly—not just "sold quickly."
• We focus on high-performance technology like Mitsubishi Hyper Heat because it provides long-term value, even if it takes more time to install correctly.

There is a place for the "Big Box" HVAC companies in Dayton. But if you want a contractor who is looking at your home as a long-term system—and a business owner who is looking at his company as a multi-generational legacy—give us a call.

Let’s build something that lasts. Call or Text Ben at (937) 681-5547.